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Sacred Narratives

The Islamic sacred narrative issues primarily from the life and experiences of Muhammad. Muslims believe that his prophetic role recovers and completes the story of Allah's revelation to humanity. This story is told in the Quran, which includes the account of divine revelation from creation.

The Quran says that the world began when God created everything in six days. The world and everything in and around it came into being through God's word. God commanded, "Be," and it was. The Quran does not give a day-to-day account of the creation, nor does it say that God rested on the seventh day. Instead, after completing his creation, God sat on his throne, regulating the world. The world will end on the Last Day, when God will resurrect the dead and judge each person according to his or her deeds. The story of God, the world, and humanity is one in which God, compassionate and merciful, sends prophets to guide us in the right way of living. While Islam's most sacred stories are found in the Quran, there are a variety of other canonical sources, including the hadith, that give traditional stories about the prophets that Muslims recognize.

The first prophet was Adam, the first human being, who was the "father of mankind." This is the same Adam of the Jewish (and Christian) Bible. God created Adam from clay, and breathed the spirit of life into him. Then he commanded all the angels to bow before Adam. Only Iblis (Satan) refused, and by his rebellion brought about the fall from paradise. According to some traditions, Adam and Eve were separated after being driven from paradise. Adam landed on the island of what is today known as Sri Lanka, where he spent 200 years doing penitence. Then the archangel Gabriel took Adam to Mount Arafat near Mecca, where he was reunited with Eve. God then ordered Adam to build the Kaaba, and Gabriel taught Adam the rites of pilgrimage.

Another significant prophet in Islam is Abraham, (Arabic, Ibrahim), the Abraham of the Bible. Islam teaches that Abraham was the founding father, or patriarch, of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. All three religions view Abraham as the exemplar of monotheistic faith. God called Abraham out of Ur to the land of Canaan, where he was promised as many descendants as stars in the sky. Abraham and his wife Sarah were very old, so Sarah encouraged Abraham to have a child with her Egyptian servant, Hagar. Hagar gave birth to a son, called Ishmael (Arabic, Ismail). The Quran contains the story in which God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, but does not name the son. Many Muslims believe that son was Ishmael. Later Sarah miraculously gave birth to a son of her own, called Isaac. Jealous of Abraham's firstborn son, Sarah insisted that Abraham banish Hagar and Ishmael.